Asking for Directions
by wildeve
Summary: Sequel or continuation of "Still Lost." The Asgardians go to NYC to help rebuild, and there are some complications with Darcy's thesis and her love life.
1. Chapter 1

Continuation of "Still Lost." I don't own any of these characters, it's all for love, not money.

Darcy wasn't sure she was really happy to be back on Midgard (oops - Earth). She was settled into staff quarters very close to Jane and Erik and to be honest, she really missed her rooms on Asgard. No servants silently glided in and left coffee and pastries on a table to be eaten in the golden splendor of an Asgardian morning. She was lucky if she could slip out for a Starbuck's run before 10am. The human part of her group was housed very far away from the Asgardian contingent, and Darcy knew that wasn't an accident, but rather by design of Shield director Fury.

She missed her days in the library on Asgard, and she missed a certain dark haired melancholic god of mischief. There'd been very little mischief that she'd witnessed herself, but she'd heard some garbled stories of pranks between Loki and Tony Stark since everyone had begun rebuilding the destroyed parts of Manhattan. Loki was assigned to stay in Stark Tower under the watch of Thor so they could supervise and direct their science/magic repairs and have access to Tony's arc technology. Pranks were good, she thought. At least he's not still pining. Getting some closure on Jotunheim with Odin when the Bifrost had been repaired seemed to lighten the psychological load he was carrying. The Frost Giants had wanted to execute him immediately on the spot, but aid from Asgard was too valuable to turn down and so they accepted Odin's terms. The realm was still in shambles, without a new King as of yet. Odin had warned Fury that the realm of Jotunheim was not quite a threat, but they were not to be ignored.

All this had come out the last time Darcy and Loki had met in the grand library on Asgard a few days before the whole crowd had decamped for Earth to help Shield and the Avengers in New York. Her work now consisted of adding every nugget and shred of information she could to her master's thesis, which had grown to a hundred pages and counting. It was still very much focused on what Asgard had done over the history of its association with the realm of Midgard, ie. saving the people of Earth from godawful monsters and being regarded as gods for doing so.

In fact, she'd had some meetings with editors (set up by Nick Fury) about expanding and turning her thesis into a book. She wasn't sure how she felt about her scholarly work being used for Shield propaganda but she knew which side her bread was buttered on. If she wanted to stay in academia she'd need to "publish or perish." In addition, she was very worried about the general reaction to Loki being back in New York. It hadn't been made public yet, and Fury was trying to finesse it into some kind of Shield PR coup: behold the mighty Asgardians rebuilding what was destroyed by hostile aliens. How to get folks to forget and forgive that the hostile aliens were invited in by one of the mighty Asgardians was the real trick. This was the key to Darcy's continued paycheck and welcome in Shield headquarters.

This was also why she had to meet with Fury find out why she couldn't see Loki. It'd been three weeks since Asgard, and she'd been cut off from her source of information; she'd only seen Loki once, and it was a brief moment of eye contact across a hallway while they both were being ushered into separate conference rooms for "de-briefing" a few days after they'd arrived. She'd smiled, he'd smiled, that was it. She had almost run down the corridor after him, but reason stopped her. Surely, they knew his part in her research and would set up some kind of regular meetings to work together? Maybe not, she thought.

Fury blinked at Darcy across the conference table.

"What? We aren't keeping you from seeing Loki. You're free to meet with him at any time. What gave you the idea we were keeping you two apart? You're the writer, he's the story!"

"See, I don't really believe you. I've asked Thor and Jane several times when I could see Loki, and all I get are super weaselly answers. 'Oh, he's too wiped out from working all day,' or ' He's meeting with Banner,' or some other B.S." She furrowed her dark brows at him. "Why would Jane and Thor make excuses for him if not told to do so by some higher ups? A higher up that they might actually obey, meaning, you, Director!"

"Look, Lewis, I'm on the level. I gave no directive to anyone regarding who Loki is allowed to meet with, at least within the 'need-to-know' inner circle. I'm trying to keep everything quiet until we can figure out a way to let folks know that he's back without causing a panic, but if you've been paying attention, you're part of that whole plan. If there's nothing else, I've got somewhere to be." Fury swept out of the room, leaving Darcy more confused than ever.

She thought back to the night on Asgard spent in Loki's room. It had only been the one time, and seemed mutually agreeable, but maybe this was his way of, oh please no, he wasn't, he couldn't… she couldn't quite form the words, but she could feel them in the pit of her stomach. She'd been dumped by a god.

-  
Loki looked over the heads up display he was working on in one of Stark Tower's R&D labs. Jane and Thor were bent over some blueprints, heads together, whispering. It gave him a jolt to realize that he was staring and that what he was feeling was jealousy. He didn't covet Jane, he coveted what Thor and Jane had together. He thought of Darcy and wondered if he had made the right decision to cut off contact with her. He did this often. Constantly, really. He shook his head and refocused on the display. Then he thought about Darcy again. It's not fair for such a young girl to be involved with someone who, to be frank, was a walking disaster of epic proportions. He knew his tendency to nurse grievances and perceived slights into world ending tantrums pretty much disqualified him from normal relationships. Surely she was smart enough to know this? He frowned as he remembered Jane and Thor coming to him a few days after arrival, smiling knowingly and asking when he was going to "meet" with Darcy, again. He had told them in no uncertain terms that he didn't want to see Darcy anymore, and that the research they had been conducting was for all intents and purposes, finished. "Make up any excuse you want," he had said, "but I won't be seeing Darcy again." He then made sure to never be there when Darcy asked about him. He didn't know if he could maintain his control of the situation if he actually saw her. Thor had obviously convinced Jane to say nothing, because Darcy hadn't marched up and demanded an explanation for her banishment from his affection. Surely that was why she'd not attempted any contact beyond timid questions... He shook his head again. If it was a mistake, then why didn't she seem to care? NO. Not a mistake. The night on Asgard was the mistake. With that, he pushed her out of his mind for two or three minutes and got back to work.


	2. Chapter 2

Darcy woke up after a long night of tossing and turning. She had finally decided to see Loki and find out if her horrible suspicion was right. She had to know for sure. She showered and dressed carefully, trying to maintain her "I'm not even trying to be sexy, I just am" look without going too far with the lipstick. After checking herself in the mirror around twenty seven times, she felt ready to face the truth.

She found Jane and Thor eating Thor's second breakfast in the staff lounge.

"Hey, Jane, give me a lift to Stark's today? I have to meet with Loki about my thesis. I'm stuck about how much I can say about the Frost Giants and I want the facts straight from him." Darcy kept her voice chipper, like nothing was amiss.

Jane and Thor stopped chewing and looked at each other and then at her.

"Darcy, today is not a great time to see Loki. He's got meetings with plumbing contractors and then a spell casting crew from Asgard and then…" Jane trailed off uncertainly, looking a bit strained.

"I don't care how busy Loki is, Jane. I'm going to talk to him. Today. So give me a ride. If Loki wants to hide from me, I'll just have to wait him out. I've got research to finish and sources to check. He's got all the books with him, remember?"

"Darcy, of course we will take you with us to Stark Tower. I will personally make sure that my brother sees you. I'm sure you have much to discuss." Thor rumbled soothingly. Knowing at least Thor was on her side made the sick feeling in her stomach ease just a little bit.

"Thanks, big guy. You rock. I'll meet you out front in 20 minutes. Will that work?" Darcy flounced away, a little peeved at Jane, but knowing she was just trying to protect her feelings.

* * *

In the elevator on the way to the R&D lab where Loki was meeting with the plumbers, Darcy was having second, third and fourth thoughts. Maybe if she gave him more time, he'd come around. No, it was better this way.

She walked down the hall and asked Jarvis to open the door. The room was filled with plumbers, burly guys with lots of tools and rolls of blueprints in satchels, who were packing up to leave. She could tell that a meeting had just ended and people had their assignments and were now going to work. No Loki.

"Excuse me, sir – where's Loki? I was told he was conducting this meeting." Darcy asked the nearest plumber.

"Yeah, sure, he's right over…wait a minute. He's gone. He has this thing where he'll just poof –gone. It's pretty freaky. Musta done that. Sorry, sweetie. Ask Tony Stark, maybe he'll know."

Darcy fumed as the plumbers filed out of the room. She'd just wait. Like she told Jane, she would wait him out.

As soon as she was alone, she said in a confident tone (that was mostly genuine), "Loki, you may not want to see me, but unfortunately, my thesis has to be finished. I need your help and I need your books. Please come out where I can see you. I'm not leaving until you do."

With that she took seat at the table and pulled out her iPod and commenced to fiddle with it. She was prepared to stay as long as it took.

Just then, Loki appeared in the chair at the head of the conference table. All the Asgardian history books he'd brought with him also appeared, carefully arranged on the table. The laptop from Darcy's office appeared in front of her with the draft file of her thesis opened up in Word. She ignored all the objects on the table in front of her and looked at Loki's face. She had no idea what he was thinking, his face was unreadable. He was wearing the Asgardian version of casual wear, and the juxtaposition between his Asgardian features and clothing and the earthy plumbers who had just left made him seem more alien to her than ever before.

"Let's get started, shall we?" His voice was perfectly calm. "Frost Giants, was it? Thor alerted me to your need."

"Yes, Frost Giants. Loki, I'm confused. What's going on?" Darcy wanted to jump up and run to him, but she remained in her chair.

"What is going on is that I am assisting the fine craftsmen of New York City in the reconstruction of their city. I am also assisting you in your research."

"Assisting me. Assisting me? Loki, I'm not stupid. Without you I'd never have gotten this far, and it's pretty obvious that what I'm supposed to do is convince the people of earth to let you live."

"Fine, agreed. I'm grateful, but that is the extent of our interaction." His eyes were cold.

Darcy spluttered, "The 'extent of our interaction?!' Loki, you, you… cad! Did you forget that we spent the night together? Not sleeping? " She'd so wanted to call him something much, much worse, but she was striving to be the better person. He was a cad, that was the fact. She hoped the disgusted look on her face was enough.

His blue green eyes flickered. He looked down at the table, picked up a book.

"What happened that night was a mistake. I apologize for my poor judgment. Let's not make this any more difficult than it already is. Shall we get to work?"

She just wanted to burst into tears and crawl into his lap, but she wasn't giving in to it. She wouldn't give him the satisfaction or the opportunity to hurt her worse than he already had. So she mentally threw up her hands and resolved to finish the damned thesis, book, propaganda piece, whatever it was, and get on with her life. She took a deep breath.

"Fine. Make arrangements with Agent Hill at Shield to get some workspace for us and clear some time on your calendar. I estimate we'll need 40 more hours or so of research and consultation to produce a final draft. If we buckle down and work on it half days while you're not busy with your crews, it'll be done in two more weeks. If I need more material to expand it to book length, I'll get it from your mom. Or Fandral." With that, she scooped up her iPod and swanned out of the room with as much dignity as she could muster.

* * *

Fandral?! Loki's thoughts were in turmoil. She wasn't serious. Maybe she was. Her composure had hardly seemed shaken by his dismissal of their time on Asgard. To be honest, he had expected tears. Tears from Darcy would have unmanned him and he didn't know if his resolve would have lasted. Her pained expression had made him want to go to her, kneel at her feet as she sat in that ridiculous office chair, lay his head in her lap, and beg for her forgiveness. But he couldn't, and she shouldn't forgive him. The evidence of his dysfunction was revealed to him every day as he worked to repair the damage to the city. He was capable of such violence, of evil. Better this way.

He waved a hand at the books and computer on the table. Everything vanished instantly and was transported and arranged in Darcy's office in the blink of an eye.

He sighed heavily. "Jarvis, tell the spell casters I've moved the meeting up to right now and send them in. Let's get started."


	3. Chapter 3

Darcy didn't know what to do first. Go tell off Jane or dive into a gallon of ice cream? Or maybe tell off Jane while eating the ice cream? That sounded good. She told the driver to drop her off at the bodega near her Shield quarters. She was staring into the freezer compartment, debating between the off brand mint chip and the more expensive but delicious dulce de leche when she heard a familiar voice behind her.

"Well, if it isn't our resident scribbler. Need a snack?"

Darcy flipped around to see Clint Barton standing behind her with a smirk on his face and a bag of chips in his hand.

"You spooked me! Don't sneak up on people like that!" Darcy said.

"You're blocking the beer case, sweetheart. Pick something and I'll walk you home." He brushed past her, reaching in and grabbing a six pack.

"Don't bother. I can get home all by myself, Barton." Darcy humphed a bit and grabbed the cheaper mint chip. She didn't have a good feeling about her future with Shield.

"Hey, what's wrong?" Clint had kept his eye on Darcy since the Destroyer incident in New Mexico, and he was really skeptical of Loki's motives in "helping" Darcy with her research and thesis. He made no secret of this either.

"Nothing's wrong. Well, let's just say I have writer's block and it's been put there by a jackass of an alien." Darcy knew she probably shouldn't be venting to Clint, who had no love at all for Loki, and in fact, openly couldn't stand the guy and only tolerated him because he was rebuilding Manhattan.

"Should I buy another six pack?"

"Oh, ha, ha. No, I need sugar to get me through this, big boy." She smiled ruefully and patted his shoulder, noticing it was very broad and that he was pretty cute in his helpful Boy Scout mode.

"I can also provide sugar, just keep that in mind." He turned away and walked toward the clerk, leaving Darcy in a mild funk. Had Hawkeye just come on to her? Maybe her future wasn't completely bleak.

Hmm. Interesting, she thought. Very interesting. She grabbed a package of double stuf Oreos and a quart of milk to go with her ice cream and went up to pay. Good thing she wasn't lactose intolerant or Loki would have driven her to drink.

* * *

Four hours later, Jane was crying, Darcy was crying and Thor had fled from the crying females in a panic back to Stark Tower. Darcy had given Jane a piece of her mind and didn't mince words.

"Oh Darcy, I am so sorry I didn't tell you that Loki was avoiding you on purpose! I thought he would change his mind after a few days. You two were attached at the hip on Asgard, I had no idea he was serious about not seeing you again. I halfway thought it was some sort of annoying prank!" Jane's lip quivered. "Oh, I'm so sorry!" she said again.

"Jane, it's not your fault. Granted, you did kind of add to the general suckiness of this whole situation, but it's Loki I'm mad at. Why did he drop me like a hot rock? I feel like Sandy in Grease when she sees Danny at her new school!"

She sat down at the small table in the kitchen and brandished her ice cream eating spoon at Jane. "Come on over and join me. Men are beyond my understanding at this point, especially ones from realms other than Earth. We earth ladies gotta stick together."

Jane walked over and hugged Darcy around her shoulders and grabbed another spoon from the counter.

"Okay, I'll have a little. I actually have to get back over to Stark Tower tonight and work on some more schematics for some remote Bifrost portals Tony wants. I won't be back until tomorrow, late."

Darcy was secretly pleased. She liked having Jane as a friend to confide in, but she was in the mood for some wallowing tonight. She had the BBC version of Pride and Prejudice lined up to go with her ice cream and cookies and a Chinese menu by the phone for later. "Okay, Janie, have fun. I'm going to watch some TV and order in, like any good girl who's been dumped." She laughed to show Jane she was okay, but was she?

* * *

Darcy's namesake on P&P as played by Colin Firth had just cut Elizabeth down to size at the first ball when there was a soft knock on her door.

"Now what?" Darcy thought as she looked through the peephole. Clint Barton's eye stared back at her.

She unlatched all the locks and opened the door. She wished she hadn't put on her "lounge attire" as she referred to her stretched out Captain America tee and sweat pants and fuzzy blue slipper socks. Her hair was mussed from burrowing in the couch and her eyes were still slightly red from crying earlier.

"Oh lord, what's wrong? Something hit the fan at Shield?" She rarely saw Barton unless there was some kind of security alert.

"No, nothing like that. When I saw you earlier it just seemed like you could use a friend. Chips?"

"Oh." Darcy stood aside and motioned toward the couch. "How do you feel about Jane Austen?"

"Not so good." Spotting the menu by the phone, he glanced at Darcy. "Did you order yet? This place has the best pot stickers anywhere." He plopped down on the couch and put his feet up on the coffee table.

"Seriously? Okay, dude. Why are you here?" Darcy said.

"If you really want to know the truth, Fury found out from Thor about Loki's recent, um, change of heart, and wants me to keep a closer eye on you until we figure out his agenda." With that he picked up the remote and paused the video. "So what do you want, noodles or rice?"

"Agenda? What agenda?"

"Exactly. What agenda? Get used to it, kiddo. You're the one who's supposed to get our tame dark lord off the hook with the people of Earth and now all of a sudden he won't give you the time of day? I'm going to stick to you like glue until the other shoe drops."

"You are, like, the King of Clichés! And I want noodles and sesame beef, please. Don't forget those pot stickers either. "Darcy's mind was once again whirling with questions. Why did everything lately seem to catch her by surprise? She was a smart woman, not a clueless little girl, right?

"Okay, fine. After dinner I'm going to bed. This has been the longest day of my life and I have a feeling tomorrow will be even worse. I got a text from Agent Hill earlier saying our writing sessions have been scheduled to start tomorrow at noon. Are you going to be there too?"

"Not where you can see me, babe."


	4. Chapter 4

Darcy woke up grumpy and bloated. She almost texted Agent Hill to tell Loki she was sick but decided it would be better to get it over with. She had to rise above it and salvage what she could.

After a very long shower and just a little extra time staring into the mirror, her lipstick was finally applied to her satisfaction. She grabbed her laptop and her stack of notebooks she had filled longhand in Asgard and locked the door. She turned around and ran smack into Hawkeye's chest. It was a tiny bit softer than running into a wall, but only slightly.

"Dammit! Make some noise when you're sneaking around," she said.

"Sorry, babe. I just wanted to remind you that I'll be very close. If Loki so much as looks at you cross-eyed I can be there in ten seconds or less."

"Seriously? He's not going to hurt me, at least not physically. I've been through this crap before. I'm just waiting for the 'it's not you, it's me' conversation. You may have to protect him from me at that point, magical powers or not." Darcy said, frowning.

"Sure, kid. Here's your coffee." With that, he handed Darcy a venti drip with sugar and half and half. She didn't want to know how he knew how she took her coffee. She watched him walk down the corridor in the opposite direction of the conference room set up for her work.

Whatever, she thought.

* * *

Loki was waiting for her in the room. All the books had been transported from her office and set up as needed.

For reasons he didn't want to examine too closely, he had chosen not to wear Asgardian clothing, going with some jeans and a plaid flannel shirt, stolen, er, borrowed, from Thor. It was a little loose, but he thought it fit well enough. He had a book on Asgardian fauna opened up to the natural enemies of Frost Giants that Asgardians had bred to help fight them. As he looked over the snarling wolf-like creature drawn on the parchment, his mind wandered. How was he going to stop himself from falling for Darcy again? It was madness. He should just create a doppelganger and have it nod at her every time she called him "dude."

If he was really honest with himself, he knew he couldn't wait to see her and that's why he came in person. He wanted to talk to her, hear her completely inappropriate observations on life, smell her hair… He really needed to get a grip on himself.

He paused, looked up into the corner, easily spotting the hidden camera. His eyes locked on the camera for a long moment. "Hello, Agent Barton. I hope you like history."

Barton was watching him on the monitor in a secured office nearby. He could hardly miss the wicked smile and the long stare at the camera. This guy doesn't miss a trick, he thought.

* * *

Darcy was ten minutes late by the time she made it to the conference room. She bustled in, trying to seem businesslike, setting up her laptop, sipping at her coffee, spreading pens and notebooks out in a little fence-like structure between her and Loki. She could hardly look at him, but when she finally did it was to see him smiling at her.

He looked, if it was possible, even more gorgeous than usual. His earthling clothes and shorter hair set off his beautiful eyes and sharp features. He stood up and she noticed the jeans and just about died. He walked over with the open book he was holding extended out toward her, meaning to set it down in front of her laptop.

"Oooh, dude! What is that monster?" She curled her lip at the picture in the book. She immediately started writing down facts from the book in note form. Loki had come around beside and slightly behind her chair to see what she was writing.

"Spelling, child, spelling." He breathed in her scent and relaxed as he started describing what the wolf-like creature's role had been in the first Frost Giant war on Earth.

Several hours later they had ten new pages written by Darcy, and edited (heavily) by Loki. Darcy stood up and stretched out, arching her back and rolling her shoulders. All that typing was hard on a girl.

"Hey, Loki, can you give me some magic fingers, there, please? My shoulders are killing me." Darcy figured it couldn't hurt to ask.

"Fine. You really should get an ergonomic keyboard. You have the muscle tone of an eighty year old." Loki reached out and brushed her long wavy hair aside and sent a tiny spell racing along all her tensed muscles, relaxing them and relieving the pain with a warm glow. The glow spread all over her body and she almost purred as she leaned back against Loki.

He breathed in her scent, and briefly held her closer before he stiffened and pushed her gently back. "Sorry, darling, that's all the time I have today. The electricians are due in about ten minutes."

"Great, thanks, I almost forgot. Assistance with writing is all I get now." Darcy couldn't tell if this was supposed to be some kind of challenge or a real brush off. Challenge accepted? Why not?

Loki waved his hand at the books and they once again vanished back to Darcy's office. She felt her cheeks flush as she gathered her notebooks and shut her laptop. She would never get used to his casual way of effortlessly working magic while being hot. He left rather mundanely, by opening the door and walking out.

"Okay, bye, see ya, whatever dude." Darcy stuck her tongue out at his back as he walked down the hall.

* * *

Loki had lied (big surprise) about the electricians. He had to make up any excuse to get away from her because he had been about a heartbeat away from ravishing her right there on the conference table. He desperately needed advice, but he had nobody to turn to. Thor? Please. Barton? The man hated him and was already sniffing around Darcy. Romanoff, for a female point of view? She hated him more than Barton. The only person he could think that would give him a fair hearing out of sheer politeness was Steve Rogers and his views on relationships were seventy years out of date. Back to Thor. Thor was pathetically eager to reach some kind of new rapport with Loki, and he did have current experience with earth women. He would have to somehow broach the subject without raising too much suspicion because Jane would report back to Darcy in a flash. He had to talk to Thor alone.

Loki found Thor on level 21 of Stark Tower, talking to Tony Stark about lightning generation using Mjolnir. He was having a hard time getting the magic=science aspect across to Tony, who was fiddling around with various EMF and Geiger counter devices trying to get a reading on Thor's hammer, which was propped up on a counter. Occasionally, Tony would reach up and try to lift it, to no avail.

"Thor," Loki said. "I need to talk to you. I need some direction."


End file.
